Old Brick Church (Bacon's Castle, Virginia)

Old Brick Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Virginia Landmarks Register
Location	VA 10, near Bacon's Castle, Virginia
Coordinates
Area	1.9 acres (0.77 ha)
Built	1754
Architectural style	Colonial, Rectilinear, Anglican Church
NRHP Reference #	86000002
VLR #	090-0034
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	January 02, 1986
Designated VLR	September 16, 1982

Old Brick Church (Lower Church, Southwark Parish) variously known as the Lawnes Creek Parish Church or the Lower Surry Church is a historic church in Bacon's Castle, Virginia.

The lower chapel of the Southwark Parish was a brick rectangular room church built in 1754 about a mile northwest of Bacon's Castle in Surry County, Virginia. Its brick walls are irregularly laid in Flemish bond and English bond with a few glazed headers. The church remained abandoned from the Disestablishment of the Church of England in America until 1847. It was destroyed by a fire reputedly set by recently freed African slaves following the American Civil War in 1868, but its thick brick walls remained standing. Its ruins were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Old Brick Church was typical of the Virginia vernacular churches of the colonial period. Prior to its destruction it probably resembled the surviving circa 1743 Merchant's Hope Church in Prince George County. Its walls were fairly well preserved until 2003 when a large oak tree in the churchyard was uprooted by high winds during Hurricane Isabel and fell on the ruins of the church collapsing large portions of its walls. The ruins have since been stabilized, and many of the original bricks were saved and there are plans to reconstruct the walls and restore the church to its colonial appearance.

According to a local folklore that goes back more than a century the ruins of the Old Brick Church are said to be haunted. Many credible people young and old over several generations claim to have seen the flying fireball. Those who've seen it describe it as simply a ball of fire. It rises from the church cemetery into the air about forty feet and slowly drifts across the broad fields towards Bacon's Castle. A former owner of the plantation saw the fireball out of his window and rushed outside thinking his barn was ablaze. Another person staying at the 17th century Jacobean mansion woke up to find the ball circling his bed before flying back out the window. Many years ago a church meeting was being held outside in the graveyard and everyone in attendance claimed to have seen the ball of fire.

File:Tablet in wall of Old Brick Church (Bacon's Castle, Virginia).JPG

Old Brick Church, VA 10 Bacon

Old Brick Church, VA 10 Bacon

File:Doorway of Old Brick Church (Bacon's Castle, Virginia).JPG

Old Brick Church, VA 10 Bacon